Home Security Service
by PaBurke
Summary: Aaron Hotchner's choice of Jack's nanny was better than even he knew.


**Home Security Service**

Spoilers: Criminal Minds episode 100.

Summary: Aaron Hotchner's choice of Jack's nanny was better than even he knew.

Disclaimer: All know I don't make money off of this.

*btvs*cm*

"Daddy!"

"Jack?" Aaron Hotchner put down the file he had been working on and glanced at the clock. His agreement with Jack's nanny indicated that if he wasn't away on a case, he would be home by seven. It was just now 5:30. She rarely let Jack call if he wasn't working late. "What's wrong?"

"Mz Lizzie said that I should call you while she was tying up the bad guys," piped up the innocent voice. "You need to come and 'rrest them."

"Bad guys?" Aaron was already reaching for his jacket and hurrying out the door. Prentiss was the only team member in the bullpen and Aaron motioned for her to come. They were running before they hit the stairs.

"Mz Lizzie uses the self-defense she's teaching me real good."

"She does?"

"Uh-huh. She caught all the bad guys."

"How do you know that they are bad guys?" Aaron asked. He could practically see his son in his mind's eye as he puzzled through the question. He tossed the keys to Prentiss and told her to floor it to his house.

"'Cause they use bad words and they tried to hit Mz Lizzie. Oh and they had guns."

"They had guns?" he echoed. Oh God, not again…

"Uh-huh. But Mz Lizzie kicked them away and they're under the dresser in the living room. Mz Lizzie don't like seeing them."

A new voice came on the phone. "Let me talk to him, Jack. Hotch?" she had accepted his nickname faster than he had anticipated. He didn't take to hers at all.

"Yes. Summers, is everything okay?"

"Just peachy." The Californian perkiness didn't hide the girl's sense of responsibility or creativity. It was occasionally annoying.

"Unsubs with guns assaulted you," Hotch started.

"Don't worry about it. All bad guys are tied up and separated from their weapons," she cut him off, revealing the alpha personality that he knew lurked beneath the surface. "Jack is safe and unhurt."

"Summers…"

"Calm down, you'll be here soon enough. Here. Talk to Jack."

"Hi Daddy," Jack greeted him again.

"Hi Buddy. Jack, I want you and Mz Lizzie to get out of the house. How about if you and Mz Lizzie go for a walk."

"Daddy wants us to go for a walk," Jack told his nanny.

"In a minute," she called back. Hotch could barely catch her words drifting through the phone. "I gotta change."

"No," Hotch ordered. "Jack, tell her that she doesn't have to change, her duty is to get you and to get you out."

"But she has blood on her shirt," Jack tattled.

"No, Jack…" Summers called but she was too late, Hotch already knew.

"How much blood?"

Summers took back the phone. "I'm fine. It was just a scratch, it already stopped bleeding. Most of the blood isn't even mine. The important thing is that Jack is fine and the bad guys are caught. We'll be outside if that makes you feel better. Better yet. Tell us which direction you'll be coming from and we'll met you there."

Hotch was willing to say anything to get Jack and his nanny out of the house. He told her the truth. He didn't know how far she would get before Prentiss pulled into the neighborhood. He kept his eyes peeled for anyone, even though he knew that this was miles away from his home. He just knew that Summers gave the phone back to Jack and the boy cheerfully chatted away. He tried to concentrate but he wasn't sure what his cheerful son told him in between that time and when Prentiss slammed on her brakes and pointed.

"Is that them?"

Aaron followed the finger to see the tiny blonde giving the dark-haired boy a piggyback ride. He was out of the SUV without thinking. He was reaching for his son and Summers handed him over with a smile. She kept the cell phone. Summers probably introduced herself to Prentiss; Aaron was too concerned with holding his son close. He couldn't believe that this had happened so soon after losing Haley to the Reaper.

"Daddy, you're squishing me," Jack informed him.

Aaron loosened his grip slightly. "Sorry Buddy. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes daddy. Mz Lizzie protected me."

Aaron met Summers' serious eyes as he lifted his son into the backseat of the SUV. "Thank you," he said.

She smiled at Jack. "Just part of the job."

Aaron blinked. "No, it isn't."

Summers shrugged. "It's always a possibility. I now know why I like your heavy duty dining room table." She climbed into the backseat of the SUV and buckled in. Aaron was obviously taking care of buckling in Jack.

"Oh?"

Jack bounced a bit as he knew the answer. "Ms. Lizzie tied all the bad guys to the chairs and the chairs to the table. I even got to go fetch rope from the garage."

Aaron sat next to his son and motioned for Emily to continue on toward his house. He should have called the cops he realized. He knew as well as anyone that instincts weren't always perfect when dealing with tragedy. He hugged his son close and thanked God that he was not traumatized by this.

When Emily parked the government vehicle across the street from his house, Hotch made Summers and Jack stay in the car while he and Emily cleared the house. The four unsubs were tied up exactly how Jack had described it. Two were unconscious. Two were not and had been trying to wiggle out of the ropes. From the burn marks on their wrists, they had been completely unsuccessful. Aaron deemed them secure and then went looking for the guns the unsubs had used. Four guns were under the antique cupboard, just like Jack had said.

Emily called out, "Hotch? I think you should see this." Aaron left the spectacle of the tied up perpetrators and followed the sound of her voice upstairs.

Prentiss was waiting outside of the nanny's suite. Summers stayed here whenever Aaron was out of town. "What's wrong?"

She just pointed at the bathroom. "What do you think of this?"

Aaron looked. Summers had changed her shirt despite his protests. The one that she had started with this morning was soaking in the sink, with some cloth napkins. From how pink the water was, Aaron was thinking of having Emily check the nanny for injuries. On the counter of the sink was a plain white bottle with 'Blood remover' written on it with a permanent marker.

Emily had some tweezers in hand and used them to lift the shirt. In spite of the color of the water, the light yellow shirt showed no evidence of blood. He blinked and remembered a dress shirt that had appeared in his closet after a job that should have left it stained. "That's impressive."

"I need to get her formula," Emily said, still admiring the shirt.

"She should market her formula. It might be able to get dried stains out too."

"Why does she carry it with her?"

"When she's not working for me, she runs a dojo."

Emily nodded and put the shirt back in the water. "Jack's taking lessons?"

"Yes."

"Good. The rest of the house is clear. I'll wait in the kitchen with the unsubs. Why don't you wait at the end of the driveway with Jack?"

Hotch accepted the offer immediately. He joined his son as Jack and Summer were sitting in the grass playing 'I spy.' His hands threatened to shake like they never did after a case. Summers watched him carefully over Jack's head. Hotch nodded his thanks for her care and she shrugged like it was no big deal. Hotch was going to have to find an excellent bonus for Christmas to express his gratitude. He'd get Jack to pick it out; she'd accept it then.

*btvs*cm*


End file.
